Analyzing your data and user behavior and preferences can help predict future social media trends. Trends keep changing over time. Users nowadays get bored easily therefore social media trends keep changing.
Predicting these changes can be very difficult.
According to a report, 76% of consumers are likely to purchase from a brand that delivers a personalized experience. With changing algorithms, market trends, customer preferences, etc, brands need to adapt themselves to the changing nature of social media.
In this article, we’ll learn what is a social media trend, the latest trends, and how to prepare for future social media trends.
What is a Social Media Trend?
A social media trend is a pattern or way of behavior, activity, and emotions that are popular or widespread on social media platforms at a specific time. These can emerge and evolve rapidly. These are often driven by influencer marketing, algorithm updates, and user-generated content.
One of the key characteristics of social media trends is that they are popular and widely used by customers. It is short-lived and fades away after some time. It relies on user-generated content and influencers often promote this trend. Algorithms can also promote such trends which makes them more popular.
Top 10 Social Media Trends
These are some of the social media trends that are emerging in the industry
- Use Of AI: More than 80% of marketers stated that they use AI to save time and create an effective workflow. Also according to a survey conducted by HootSuite stated that 75% of social media marketers plan to use AI for rewriting text. Some use AI for creating images and videos. Some creators also edit their images using AI. Apart from this, AI can help in content scheduling, researching competitors, data collection, social listening, tracking KPIs, etc.
- Growth Of TikTok: Facebook is the most popular social media platform but TikTok is preferred more by Gen Z and Gen Alpha. eMarketer stated that Facebook users under 25 years old are now under 18%. Around 45% of TikTok users are now Gen Zers. On average, users between the ages of 18 to 24 spend 1 hour and 18 minutes per day on the platform. 55% of marketers are planning to increase their spending on TikTok. In addition to this 78% of small businesses witnessed a positive ROI from TikTok. Dunkin’ Donuts is one of the most famous companies that marketed to Gen Z on TikTok.
- Customer Support: Nowadays customers expect a quick response from the brands. According to Zendesk’s report, more than 72% of customers expect immediate service from the companies they contact. 90% of customers feel that instant response from customer response is very important. The need for speed and personal attention led to brands using social media for customer service. According to the Sprout Social Index, 51% of consumers felt that the most memorable brands on social media are those that respond quickly. According to a report by HootSuite, 46% of social media marketers plan to use AI chatbots for responding to customers.
- Advertising: Ad Spending on social media has increased. By 2028, it is expected that the budget of brands on social media will surpass 26%. The most popular platform for social ads is Meta, it is predicted to pull in 64% of global ad spend on social media. Disney increased spending on Meta by 40% and Comcast increased by 6%.
- Content: People desire information that is relevant and resonates with them. They want to build an emotional connection to a brand. They want to understand the brand as if it’s a human. Brands are making their content more genuine to make their brand authentic. Many brands are using UCG to attract more customers. According to a Sprout Social survey, 28% of customers stated that brands that highlighted the stories of their customers over their products are special to them. Buffer and Away, both use UGC effectively. Another way of building relationships on social media is through honest conversation. 90% of social media users feel that brands can regain their trust during a crisis by admitting mistakes and by transparent about the steps they are taking to resolve it.
- Bite-Sized Content: People are spending more time on social media but engaging less. The attention span of users has reduced. Users on TikTok state that videos longer than 60 seconds are stressful. Instagram users prefer a similar timeframe such as reels between 7 and 25 seconds are best. 33% of marketers are planning to invest in short-form content.
- Social Commerce: 17% of customers have brought a product on social media in a span of three months. Facebook leads as a top choice for social commerce. Instagram is not behind with almost 45% of users using the app to shop every week.
- Social Listening: Brands gain data and insights from social media. By using social listening tools, it is easy to monitor the conversation on social media. It helps in understanding the impact of campaigns, brand perception, etc.
- Trendingjacking vs Trend Detox: Trendjacing is folding all major trends into your social strategy. Trend detox is taking deliberate breaks from current events to produce original content that is true to the brand’s goals and identity. It is not necessary to choose only one strategy, you can study the context and make strategic, data-informed decisions. Make sure your social media uses a framework for when to jump into a trend and jump off a trend. 29% of marketers use social listening for monitoring trends.
Micro-influencer Marketing via Dark Social Channels: Dark social refers to private online channels such as messaging apps like WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, private social media groups, etc. Brands collaborate with micro-influencers to create sponsored content or product reviews. They encourage their followers to create more UGCs. Glossier collaborated with micro-influencers on Instagram and encouraged them to share their experience with Glossier products via direct message. It helped in increasing their brand awareness and engagement. It also increased their authentic endorsements.
How to Prepare for the Future of Social Media
To prepare yourself for the future of social media, you must understand the latest trends and prioritize people over brand. You must understand your users and provide excellent user experience to them by using technologies like Augmented Reality (AR), Web3, Virtual Reality (VR), etc. You should understand the user’s behavior. It is almost important to explore more channels and opportunities. You must be active on existing platforms as well as the newly emerging platforms and trends.
Always learn a technology before using it. It is important to learn technology, tools, etc before using them. Focus more on meaningful entrance or using a trend rather than just following the herd. It is important to leave a mark while using a trend.
The dynamic nature of social media trends requires a holistic approach combining technological innovation, ethical consciousness, human creativity, etc. Making a meaningful and impactful presence is what you should desire. Lumia 360 has designed several successful social media strategies for its small to medium enterprises. Which has helped these brands stay relevant and fulfill their marketing goals.
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